This invention is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. (08/102906) filed of even date, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
This invention relates to solid state laser sources, to solid state optical amplifiers, and to photonic integrated circuits. More particularly this invention relates to photonic integrated circuits and components thereof including GaAs or other III-V lasers and optical waveguides, all formed on the same substrate in an integrated process.
In the past, photonic circuits have been handicapped by the frequency mismatch between the typical III-V compound LED or laser diode excitation light sources and active optical media that are readily formed onto a semiconductor substrate by conventional processing techniques. The result has been to force the fabrication of hybrid devices with different portions of these devices being formed separately and then combined into the final hybrid assembly. There has remained a need for an integrated photonic assembly that can combine the excitation light source with the active waveguide in an integrated apparatus.